Opened these two last night, expecting them to go down the drain, but surprise/surprise:1. DavidCoffaro Carignane DCV (EB; U/U; 14.6%; 75% Carignane/15% CS/10% PS; 150 cs) 1996: Dark color w/ considerable browning; attractive cherry/black cherry/plummy light vanilla/toasty/oak/smokey some dusty/earthy/OV bit cedary quite attractive oldRed nose; rather soft/smooth somewhat cherry/black cherry/spicy/plummy some vanilla/smokey/oak bit cedary/oldRed flavor w/ little tannins; med.long some cherry/dried cherries/black cherrys light vanilla/oak very smooth/graceful finish w/ no tannins; a nice smooth/graceful/mature oldRed; not at all tired nor dried out; a quiet/gentle/little ole lady like my Aunt Tot and a bit on the fragile side. $cheap_________________2. DavidCoffaro Zin DCV (EB; U/U; 14.5%; 75% Zin/10% CS/9% PS/6% Carignane; 425 cs) 1996: Dark color w/ considerable browning; slight unclean/bretty/mushroomy some plummy/blackberry/Zin bit spicy/raspberry some cedary/pencilly/old Zin slight smokey/cedary/vanilla/oak fairly complex oldZin nose; soft/smooth slight bretty/unclean/barnyardy gentle/plummy/blackberry/Zin/black cherry light vanilla/cedary/pencilly/oak oldZin flavor w/ little tannins; med.long some blackberry/plummy/Zin rather cedary/pencilly/old Zin some bretty/unclean finish w/ no tannins; a quiet/gentle/oldZin/old lady like my Aunt Clara w/ still a bit of spunk & sparkle. $cheap__________________________________________And a wee BP:1. I, of course, followed DavidCoffaro from the very start. Although I don't quite understand his blending regimen; I've found his wines to be very well-made/balanced and attractive to drink from the get-go. They are not wines that I would particularly expect to age much beyond the first 2-4 yrs. So I had low expectations when I pulled these from my stash the other day. When I opened them, the brown/murkey color confirmed my worst fears..these two are totally shot. Surprise/surprise. When I tried them they were still alive and a real pleasure to drink. Like my old-maid aunts, Tot and Clara; they wern't much to look at...but they still had a twinkle in their eye and that gentle hug they gave you when you saw them made you feel all warm & fuzzy inside. 'Course I was a bit younger then!! These were closed by real/composite corks. David then went to SupremeCorq and NeoCork. Those wines, by & large, have not stood the test of time. Now he uses Stelvin closure and I suspect they age much better.Tom

Thanks for the notes on the older Zins from Coffaro. Tom, I am assuming "EB" means Estate Bottled. David has in the past got some fruit from neighbors such as Bernier and recently some place in Chalk Hill. Interesting to see how those wines do as they age. I am not holding on too long to the bottles with the synthetic cork myself.-Shaji

Not sure I see the need to age Dave's wines..As previously mentioned, they drink well from the outset..I barrel tasted there back in 2008, bought futures, have only 1 bottle left and all bottles were terrific and at least as good as when tasted in barrel..will be returning to Coffaro in 2 weeks for another visit and tasting..Hopefully with same results...Longstory short, not sure what might be gained by aging these wine..just my 2 cents, your mileage may vary

Jon Leifer wrote:Not sure I see the need to age Dave's wines..As previously mentioned, they drink well from the outset..I barrel tasted there back in 2008, bought futures, have only 1 bottle left and all bottles were terrific and at least as good as when tasted in barrel..will be returning to Coffaro in 2 weeks for another visit and tasting..Hopefully with same results...Longstory short, not sure what might be gained by aging these wine..just my 2 cents, your mileage may vary

I'm sorta new to this wine-aging stuff, Jon. I like MonteBello/Geyserville from the git-go, but know that they can really age and change into somethingmagical. Indeed, the Caffaros are also absolutely deelish from the get-go. But I don't have the experience to know that they won't age into something even better.How long they can age, I haven't a clue. This is but one more data point...way longer than I would have expected. I wouldn't say that these were "better" thanwhen they were young....but they were certainly different.Tom

understood Tom..and BTW, I DO love your posts, a must read for me..I was trying to reply to Shaji's post where he wondered about how well some of the wines might do as they age..I am a longtime fan of the Geezer and also have fond memories of a Ridge York Creek PS from sometime in the 70's....

Jon,I hear what you are saying. David's wines are delicious and dont really need age to be appreciated. However every once in a while, due to either accident or by plan for the "sake of science" (what else? ) I will let a bottle lay around to see what it turns into. Most of my older Coffaro's are from the early 2000s and they are by no means a good yardstick to measure ageing. But several of his 2002s and 2003s have morphed/mellowed into quite interesting wines. I dont think even David himself makes these wines with the intention of long term storage. And I do agree that Tom's pulpit is the bomb!! I/have/learned/a/lot/from/his/posts/ -Shaji

Shaji: you clearly go back further with Dave's wines than I do..we sorta discovered Coffaro by accident a few years ago..was near the end of the day, we drove past it, turned around and went back to visit..glad we did..Given some of stuff he does with obscure Portugese grapes, and I see an Aglianico and a Lagrein on this year's futures list, along with an Escuro, I kinda look at Dave as a mad scientist..tho , of course, in the best way...won't be back from Cali until early November..Will try and post on our visit to Coffaro when we get back..I too have lost, forgotten, misplaced bottles in the cellar only to discover them at what I might have considered past their due date..Some were indeed over the hill..A few others, however, were a very pleasant surprise,,for example, bottles of Columbia Crest Grand Estates Merlot and Cab..Not exactly sure when I unearthed them but they were drinking quite well at > 15 years of age..pretty outstanding for bottles that cost <$10 when I bought em

Jon,If I get my act together, I might be on the Mendocino coast on 10/27 and 10/28. If you are in the area maybe we can meet up and compare some Coffaros and others. John Treder probably has a whole bunch of Coffaros that go earlier than 2000. We can maybe persuade him to help our scientific endeavour!-Shaji

Sorry, Shaji, I've poured all the synthetic cork stuff down my throat. I do have one-bottle-per-year verticals of Block 4 from 2002 to 2011, My Zin and Estate Zin from 2005 to 2011, and Aca Modot from 2003 to 2011, except no 2008. Unless my spreadsheet is lying to me.Ok, I have extras of some of the more recent vintages. I'm going to have to have a Coffaro party RSN.

The Cab and Rhone blends seem to peak somewhere around 5 - 8 years from vintage. Zin, well, it sort of depends on whether you like older zin. I do, and it'll go 10 most years, but of course it no longer tastes so fresh, fruity and zingy.The screwcaps slow everything down, IMO, but the process seems to evolve about the same way as with real corks. The fake corks didn't work so well, I found a sort of astringency after three or four years.

All my Coffaros are in screwtop..Will be running the Wine Country 1/2 Marathon, Geyserville to Healdsburg 10/27 along with my wife and our daughter's boyfriend..10/28 will be tasting around Healdsburg area for a while and perhaps lower down in Sonoma as well and then drive down to San Fran for a few days before heading to Carmel/Monterey for a few days(probably do some tasting in this area as well) then back to the Right Coast(upstate NY, near Siberacuse)..I am totally clueless re our schedule as yet other than the race and a few race oriented events, dinner at Willy's and at Zin..but we are penned in to taste at Coffaro on Thursday, 10/25,after lunch, I swapped emails with Pat....I'm hoping to get together with the ever gracious John Treder, either in Santa Rosa or at Coffaro..or?? Love that Block 4, still one bottle of the 2008 left

What can I say, John, I have horrible habits...We are taking the kids to see the redwoods in Guernesville in the AM and then plan to grab a bite of lunch (so I don't taste on an empty stomach) before heading to Coffaro..Look forward to meeting you

I was going to go to Armstrong Grove Wednesday (power was out at home because PG&E was replacing a power pole across the street) and I was listening to the Giants game, and when I got to Guerneville the radio reception was dismal, so I just took a drive around small towns - Graton, Occidental, Freedom and the metropolis of Sebastopol. It was a fun drive. I really love the back roads of Sonoma County!I'll be there and being retired, I have all day....

I retired from corporate life 10 years ago, now do some consulting, helps pay for my wine and my wife's running clothes plus her Nordstrom habit (our daughter was a fashion and design major in college,did her co-op in Nordstrom's management training program..and has been my wife's fashion coordinator ever since)..see ya soon